The Physical Life of Woman: Advice to the Maiden, Wife and MotherNapheys, George H. (George Henry)
Science
The Physical Life of Woman: Advice to the Maiden, Wife and Mother
Napheys, George H. (George Henry)
Women -- Health and hygiene
Jung Stilling, a German author of note, a religious enthusiast, and full
of queer fancies, was, when young, a tutor in a private family. On one
occasion his employer took him to a strange house, and introduced him
to a roomful of company. Stilling had not contemplated marriage; but, in
the company, he saw, for the first time, a young woman who he felt was
his destined wife. Walking across the room, he addressed her with the
utmost simplicity, telling her that an inward monitor advised him that
she, of all womankind, was his predestined helpmeet. She blushed, was
confused, but presently confessed that she had experienced the same
conviction on first beholding him. They married, and the most curious
part of the tale remains to tell,--it is, that they proved a happy,
well-matched couple.
We do not advise others to follow their example. Not many souls are
capable of such reciprocity. Choosing an associate for life is too
serious a business to be made the affair of a moment. Reason,
reflection, thought, prayer,--these are aids in such a momentous
question not to be lightly thrown aside. Many a passing fancy, many an
evanescent preference, catches for a moment the new-fledged affections.
But for the long and tedious journey of life we want a love rooted in
knowledge.
We are not blind to the fact, that often from the first interview the
maiden feels an undefined spell thrown around her by him who will become
her husband. She feels differently in his presence; she watches him with
other eyes than she has for the rest of men. She renders no account to
herself of this emotion; she attempts no analysis of it; she does not
acknowledge to herself that it exists. No matter. Sooner or later, if
true to herself, she will learn what it is, and it will be a guide in
that moment, looked forward to with mingled hopes and fears, when she
is asked to decide on the destiny, the temporal and eternal destiny, of
two human lives.
That she may then decide aright, and live free from the regrets of a
false step at this crisis of life, we shall now rehearse what medical
science has to say about
HOW TO CHOOSE A HUSBAND.
'Choose well. Your choice is
Brief, and yet endless.'
Woman holds as an inalienable right, in this country, the privilege of
choice. It is not left to notaries, or parents, to select for her, as is
the custom in some other parts of the world.
First comes the question of relationship. A school-girl is apt to see
more of her cousins than of other young men. Often some of them seek at
an early hour to institute a far closer tie than that of blood. Is she
wise to accept it?
SHALL COUSINS MARRY?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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